The present invention relates to a vehicle safety rear light. More particularly, the present invention relates to an auxiliary safety rear light assembly which can be adjustably attached to the rear window of an automobile or truck.
Every year more than three million rear-end auto collisions cause damage, injury or death. A study by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has determined that a supplementary rear light mounted at the center of the trunk lid or rear hatch at driver's eye level had a dramatic effect on the accident rate. Cars equipped with the extra light had half as many rear-end collisions as cars with conventional brake lights. Moreover, in the collisions that did occur, the damage cost less than half as much to repair.
While the desireability of supplementary rear lights is clearly recognized it is surprising that they are not more readily available in the vehicle after-market. The principle reason for this is believed to be the great variety of designs for trunk lids and rear hatches in vehicles produced over the past ten years. Optimally, the supplementary rear light will be positioned so that it is parallel to the road. Also optimally the light will be positioned at driver eye level.
Because there are so many different attitudes and angles of vehicle trunk lids and rear hatches and the relative position on the rear of the vehicle, which aligns with driver's eye level in the majority of trailing vehicles, varies from vehicle to vehicle no single supplementary rear light design has heretofore been usable on more than one or two types of vehicles. Manufacturers may thus be reluctant to enter such a fragmented marketplace and be forced to make a different supplementary rear light for each model and year of vehicle.
A need thus exists for an auxiliary safety rear light assembly which can be universally adapted to the wide variety of existing vehicles.